Hungary's MPs elect Viktor Orban

HUNGARIAN MPs have elected Viktor Orban to his third term as prime minister, a month after his Fidesz party won its second consecutive two-thirds majority in the legislature.

Orban was supported by 130 deputies from Fidesz and its small ally, the Christian Democrats, while 57 MPs from the opposition parties voted against him on Saturday.

Speaking in the legislature after the swearing-in ceremony, the 50-year-old prime minister said he would to continue with the policies of the past four years.

The Orban government has attained significant economic achievements - lower inflation and unemployment and budding signs of growth - but many of the gains have been the result of unsustainable practices.

Critics have also attacked Orban's concentration of power and the weakening of democratic norms.